Angela was officially released from Palomar Hospital at 11AM Wednesday, September 14th 2005. She proceeded to spend the next 6 hrs shopping at the Escondido mall.
3 days later and she's happily settled back home. She's even walking on her own! She needs a bit of support here and there but she is doing so great compared to even just a week ago.
Yup, you read that right! Angela has finally gotten the go ahead from the doctor to go home! She is so excited she can hardly sleep. She's up at all hours of the night planning what she's going to do once 'she's out'.
She'd planned on Fri. but the doctor told her she can go anytime after Tues. so Wed. morning she's breaking outta there!
Yay!
Wow! Alot has changed since we last posted here (sorry about that). Lately the schedule has been: Mom during the week, me on the weekends. A few times Jess has also been able to stay over (something she hopes to be able to make a weekly thing).
Angela can sit up! All by herself. She swings her legs over the side of the bed and can 'transfer' herself from the bed to her wheelchair almost by herself using the 'transfer board'(a nurse dutifully stands by just in case). She can also wheel herself around the hospital with a little help now and then when her arms get tired.
She's doing so great that during a meeting on Wednesday, the doctors, P/T's and nurses agreed that if she continues on this fast track recovery, she can go home in as little as 3 weeks!
Yay!
I got to the hospital a little after 6:30pm Fri night. Mom had already left to run some errands and get Robby from the babysitters so Angela was alone for a couple hrs. Since she now has pretty good use of her hands, she can use her knuckles to adjust her position in bed (up/down), call the Nurse, and operate both the TV and lights in the room so being alone for a few hours isn't a big deal to her.
We had an excellent night on Friday. Angela actually slept through the entire night (very nice break from getting up every hour to help change positions, call the nurse..etc). She did get a bit grumpy during/after her P/T & O/T sessions (which occured simultaneously) but it wore off (for the most part) by the end of the day.
We watched a movie Sat. night, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It was pretty good and we had hooked up an external set of speakes to the laptop and cranked it up nice and loud so we could both hear it. That was really nice!
Sat. night I got sick so Angela kept waking up. Poor thing. No wonder she was so sleepy for the duration of Sunday (she just wanted to sleep all day). She had another P/T and O/T session (1 hr instead of the 3 hrs she has during the weekdays). She did very good. She definitely enjoys the workout more from the wheelchair than when they're doing balance work from the bed.
I left around 9PM on Sunday night. Last time I stayed through Monday but the thought of hitting that early morning traffic just didn't sit well (the last time I was stuck on a non-moving freeway for the better part of an hour!).
Mom's had a pretty good break this week. Nana came down from Los Angeles and stayed with Angela for a few days. So Mom's been sleeping in her own bed for most of the week. A nice break for her. Thanks Nana!
Just drove into work from the hospital. I ended up staying Sunday night in addition to Fri & Sat (such a nice sister). Angela did pretty good. Her mood was great on Fri & Sat and her nurse at night was just plain ol' awesome (her name is Lisa and hopefully we'll get her again this weekend!).
The nurses during the day (and last night)...not so awesome. They argued and made a stink whenever Angela wanted her medicine, telling her that she had to start 'weaning' herself so that she didn't become addicted. Angela ever-so-nicely told her she'd gladly switch places with the lady and see how she liked it when her entire body felt like it was being crushed. She got her medicine. But we fought almost every time and believe me fighting with someone at 2:30 AM does not bring out the best in people. Namely me.
Angela has an AMAZINGLY bad heat/sweat rash covering the entire back of her body, from scalp to toes. Big red bumps. So she's now also on Benedryl for that (and boy, does that medicine have her saying some WEIRD things!).
Yesterday, Nana, Papa & Uncle Kurt came to visit. Nana and I went to Angela's P/T session with her. Not the best P/T session. As soon as they tried getting her on her feet, Angela started screaming. Screaming and crying and insisting that her legs were snapping in half. They weren't...but everyone thought it was a good idea to forgo any more P/T for the day.
Other than the bad nurses and P/T session, Angela was in a fine mood. She laughed and talked for most of the time. We watched a movie (Man of the House---surprisingly not bad).
Left for work around 8 this morning. Angela's going to be alone for a few hours before Mom makes it over there.
OH! And I wanted to mention this: ANGELA CAN RECEIVE MAIL AT THE HOSPITAL AND SHE LOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVES IT! Just email/call and we'll send you the address (post addy's in cyberspace is a baaaaaaaaaad idea so we're not going to do that!).
That's all for now. Have a great day!
Angela got to ride in a wheel chair yesterday! Mom says she was really excited about it! I should think so, she hasn't gotten to be 'up' for over a month!
Sitting up is extremely painful for her (as is anyone touching her legs...which makes re-arranging her very interesting) so the ride was pretty short...but still, she was happy to get out of bed.
Her trach is OUT. Gone, bye-bye! The doctors came in and just took it out, put some gauze over the hole and said it should heal all by itself in a few days. We haven't seen her since Sunday but we'll be checking the next time we see her!
We're so sorry for the break in posting. This last week has been hectic with plans for Robby's big #7 (yesterday) and just life in general.
We had a great time at Boomers --- thanks to everyone who showed! Didn't get a chance to see Angela (weather, traffic, and a bath all conspired against us!) but Nana and Papa got in a nice couple hours.
Angela's feeling pretty icky, in constant pain and usually nauseous. Which is probably because she is eating and drinking now. No more feeding tube! Yay! We'll be kind and call her food...interesting.
Since we have no more birthdays comin' up, we should be getting back to our normal visiting schedule!
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